“You shall not commit adultery.” One of the amazing things that human beings are capable is of entering into a lifelong , covenantal, life sharing and life giving mission which we name marriage. Our understanding of marriage goes right back to the beginning of the Biblical story. If you look at the accounts of Genesis where God […]
YouCat – The Fourth Commandment (Honor your father & mother)
“Honor your father and your mother.” The fourth commandment moves us from our relationship with God, as introduced to us in the first, second, and third commandments, into our relationships with others. This commandment deals with those to whom we are meant to be the closest: our parents. “The fourth commandment refers in the first place […]
YouCat: The Third Commandment (The Lord’s Day)
Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day. At the end of the first story of creation (Genesis 1), it says that God took the seventh day to rest, blessing it and setting it apart (cf. Genesis 2:1-3). An obvious question is why – why would God set this day apart, and take a day to […]
YouCat: The Second Commandment (Respect God’s Name)
“You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain.” When I was working with traveling retreat teams, we used to do a skit based on the Our Father which began with one of the girls on our team kneeling down to pray. She would make the sign of the cross, and […]
YouCat – The First Commandment (Worship God Alone)
“I am the Lord, your God. You shall not have strange gods before me.” The bulk of this third section of YouCat – on How we are to have life in Christ – is spent explaining the Ten Commandments, which were introduced in last week’s YouCat post. So, since the YouCat goes through them one […]
YouCat: The Ten Commandments
At the heart of the Old Law, revealed to Israel in the Old Testament, is the Ten Commandments. These commandments “express man’s fundamental obligations towards man and neighbor, which are always and everywhere valid“ (YouCat 351). They are found in scripture twice, in Exodus 20:2-17 & Deuteronomy 5:6-21, and we normally teach them as follows